Saturday, November 28, 2015

5 Reasons to Visit Hong Kong in October/November!

Hey everyone!
It's been barely two months since my last trip to Hong Kong in August 2015, but I already missed Hong Kong so much that I booked another trip back for YZ and I together!

Maureen (MissTamChiak), Evonne and I were also honoured to work together with Hong Kong Tourism Board during this trip, and we had an amazing time!

Hong Kong is fantastic all year-round, but October/November is one of the most exciting periods to visit! Here are my top 5 reasons why you should visit Hong Kong in October/November!

1. It's Halloween!
Hong Kong is the best place in Asia to celebrate a fun-filled Halloween. There is a festive Halloween buzz permeating the city during the whole of October.

I already adore Hong Kong Disney Land on any regular day, but Hong Kong Disney Land during Haunted Halloween is extra extra spook-tacular because of the Halloween decorations, themed food and special attractions! The Halloween décor and themes can only be found throughout the month of October, so we were really lucky to have been there at the right time!

Hello at the Happiest Place On Earth!

I love how Disney music is blaring from the speakers from the moment you step into Hong Kong Disney Land. It's so magical!

Photo-op with Duffy and ShellieMay, all dressed up in Halloween costumes!

It's our second time in Hong Kong Disneyland, but it hasn't lost its magic or charm at all!

Disney and Halloween-themed food! That "Nightmare Before Christmas" Jack Skellington bun is so cute!

We had a lot of fun tucking into all those themed bites and snacks ;D

The Mickey-shaped waffle is really good by the way!

And Mickey ice cream!

This Mickey-bat cookie was so adorable I couldn't bear to eat it. Haha!

Oh, spotted this little kid dressed as a Stormtrooper for Halloween! Can he get any cuter?

The Halloween decor was Disney-themed too!

Waiting for the Flights of Fantasy Parade to start!!

*cue Flights of Fantasy music playing* The afternoon parade is always the highlight of the day! The parade starts at 3pm, along Main Street.

All my favourite Disney characters appearing in real life!

I really love that happy, spirited vibe that all Disney performers exude!

Absolutely enchanting experience for the little ones.

Disney princesses!!! *hearts*

After so much excitement, we were more than happy to rest our legs and dig into more super squeal-inducing Halloween/Disney-themed food at Corner Cafe on Main Street! The Main Street Halloween Duffy's Afternoon Tea Set, which is a Halloween special, is too pretty to miss!

Just look at all those Mickey silhouettes as well as additional touches of Halloween: Bat-shaped cheese and pumpkins, anyone?

I particularly have a thing for Jack Wellington. Look at those macarons!

A pink Shellie May strawberry milkshake that tasted so good after our time out in the afternoon sun!

And there were also festive food dishes just for Halloween on the menu as well!

Happy us with all the happy food!

We went on all my favourite Disney Rides, including this one at Toy Story Land! It's the RC Race Roller Coaster! This ride was such a blast!!!

Love the thrill and adrenaline rush of the RC Racer, a U-shaped coaster.

We also went on some other rides that I really love, like the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, and Mystic Manor at Mystic Point!

When night fell, all the ghouls came out to play!

Like these Victorian ladies and gentlemen in eerie white.. They attracted such a crowd from the park visitors!

And I was eager for “Disney Paint the Night” Nighttime Spectacular: The night parade! It's a fairly new addition to Hong Kong Disneyland and wasn't introduced yet the last time I visited a couple years back! The parade started around 7.30pm, so the beautiful neon lights were very striking in the dark!

Got started with my favourite characters from Monsters Inc, Sulley!

An effervescent-looking Ariel from The Little Mermaid, this display was magnificent!

Everyone's favourite, Beauty and the Beast!

Toy Story's Woody and Buzz Lightyear on the giant slinky dog!

Don't all these characters bring back nostalgic childhood memories of your beloved animated films? Disneyland really makes me feel like I'll never grow old! :) We really enjoyed the "haunted" atmosphere and had such a frightfully fantastic time.

But the Halloween party didn't stop there, even on the streets of Lan Kwai Fong, Halloween festivities were going strong!

I've always heard a lot about Halloween celebrations at Lan Kwai Fong, and we arrived at the perfect time to join in the monstrous fun! Lan Kwai Fong is one of the largest and most entertaining outdoor hot spots for Halloween celebrations, and the best place for partying in Hong Kong!

Check out these elaborate Halloween ghouls at Lan Kwai Fong! Thankfully, they were friendly ones and even obliged us to a photo!

I kind of regretted that I didn't think about dressing up/making up for Halloween! It would have been majorly exciting!

Apart from celebrating Halloween in Hong Kong, us girls also had the opportunity to attend one of the largest and most anticipated festival as well: Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival!

The popular “Hong Kong Wine & Dine Month” kicks off with an internationally-celebrated four-day “CCB (Asia) Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival” at Central Harbourfront Event Space; then follows through with a month-long series of events and promotions, including street carnivals, hotel wine and dine offers, wine-themed tours, classes and fairs.

Hong Kong is known to be the ‘Culinary Capital of Asia’ internationally, so you can imagine how massive this event was!

There were over 200 wine booths featuring great wines from around the world, and 100 food booths featuring winning dishes of the 2015 Best of the Best Culinary Awards and signature dishes from many of Hong Kong’s renowned hotels and restaurants.

We literally wined and dined the entire evening, sampling different food and wines from all the different booths at the festival!

There were also performances and live music, and the lively atmosphere was electrifying!

Getting happy with all the alcohol. We were able to sample and taste so many different kinds of wines and alcohol!

It was really interesting as there were five thematic wine zones (e.g. Cheering Zone with champagnes, party wines, cocktails etc; Country Pavilions with fine wine and delicacies from Europe and more!)

There were also five thematic food zones (e.g. Star Avenue with popular dishes from renowned hotels and restaurants; Festival Treats with street foods, burgers and party foods such as ham, cheese etc.) so it was easy to zero in on what you were interested in trying. We barely sampled one-third of all that Wine and Dine Festival had to offer!

Pretty eye candy at a booth offering Spanish sangrias and wines!

Food food, and more food. Yum!

For the first time ever, whisky and craft beer were also available at the festival! We tasted some really great craft beers, and this Juicy Pear Cider was my personal favourite :)

I thought all the different sections throughout the festival was ingenious, such as the Garden Party Zone – a new lush dining experience in a garden in the city, exclusive for participants with the Garden Party Pass.

And this year, the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival unveiled the Tasting Room, a privileged, stylish dining area which was open to the public from 24-25 Oct. It offered amazing dining experiences such as the Masterchef Lunch, Afternoon Tea and more. This beautifully styled Tasting Room was a platform for international and local chefs to present their culinary masterpieces. Enjoying mouthwatering fine dining in the presence of Hong Kong’s iconic skyline – what could be better than that?

Even after the four-day festival is over, there is still a month of Wine & Dine events, tours, classes, and promotions going on in Hong Kong! Ranging from street carnivals to food and wine themed tours, and even birthday specials, it's the perfect time to visit Hong Kong! If you missed it, don’t worry – be sure to visit the Festival next year!

Meanwhile, do check out the video below of us having fun at the Wine & Dine Festival!

Where in Hong Kong can you find the most traditional, authentic and popular German beer festival? Right at our hotel (literally at our doorstep)!

We went to the Marco Polo German Bierfest for more partying and a whole lot of enjoyment, think German pork knuckles, German beer, fantastic live music by German band Notenhobler, and a huge crowd of energetic party-goers! It's true, Hong Kong knows how to party!

I was soaking in the entire German atmosphere.. Although I've never experienced Bierfests in Germany before, Hong Kong's Marco Polo German Bierfest is probably the closest it'll get in our vicinity.

Cheers with German beer, pork knuckles, ribs, bratwursts and more!

Look at that insane spread of food in front of us!

Photo credit to MissTamChiak: Our resident food blogger who took mouth-watering photos of the food!

We were practically tearing the ribs apart with our teeth, we were that hungry!

Everyone at the Marco Polo German Bierfest was totally enjoying the live music, alcohol and food!

Since 1994, “The Notenhobler” has been the official band in Marco Polo German Bierfest. The band wears original Oberkrainer clothes, and sings traditional tunes and hearty folk music. The Notenhobler also performs madcap antics and hosts popular games!

Evonne and I got kinda high towards the end and were dancing and singing like nobody's business. Crazy fun!

The incredible Hong Kong landscape from our vantage point at Marco Polo German Bierfest! The best part about the crazy night out at Marco Polo German Bierfest was that it took us barely a few minutes to get back into the comfort and luxury of our Marco Polo Hotel suite!

We slept like royalty for the two nights that we were hosted at Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel!
The bed was absolute gold, so comfortable that I really had trouble getting up in the mornings!

Definitely the most spacious and luxurious place I've had the pleasure of staying in Hong Kong!

4. Amazing good food!

This might be a moot point, but the one good reason for me to visit Hong Kong, ANY TIME, has got to be the food! You've already read my previous Hong Kong food guide, so I'm sure you know. There are never enough meals to go around in Hong Kong for everything you'll want to eat!

I sure ate my way through our trip and I'll be posting more of my favourite food recommendations soon, so stay tuned!

5. Shopping!!

There is so much shopping to do in Hong Kong, it is ridiculous! Regardless of whether you're looking for designer boutiques or cheap street fashion, you can get both ends of the spectrum in Hong Kong, and we definitely shopped at every opportunity we got.

PMQ has lots of significance as a cultural site, but it is now a space for design and creative enterprises, housing many different Hong Kong designer labels and cool studios! It's a very interesting area and Evonne loves PMQ.

With Felicia and Fang, Evonne's friends whom we also spent time together with during this trip to Hong Kong!

For more shopping, I personally love Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok! Tsim Sha Tsui has got so many huge shopping malls, it's any shopaholic's heaven ;)

Don't forget to pop by Argyle Centre at Mongkok, I make sure I visit every trip to get some good quality shoes at affordable prices!

The good thing about visiting in October/November is that you can find upcoming winter trends (boots, covered shoes, trench coats, parkas) all over the place, and they're so cheap! I scored a pair of black heeled booties for less than SGD30. The parka on me cost about SGD50. So much awesomeness!

Well, it was certainly an incredible time in Hong Kong yet again! If you still haven't booked your next trip to Hong Kong, do it quick, and don't forget to check out Discover Hongkong's website to get updated on the latest happenings in Hong Kong!

More videos of our Shop, Eat, and Play fun in Hong Kong will be coming soon, so stay tuned!

Yina says hi

Welcome to my blog! My name is Yina Goh, and I own online boutique The Velvet Dolls. I'm passionate about travel, fashion, food, beauty and music. I love photography and taking photos to document my everyday!

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For professional inquiries, collaborations or engagements, hit me up at yina@bloggerati.me!